Better With Three
by Incongruous
Summary: On a lonely adventure the Ninth Doctor finds a future Rose.


**I own nothing.**

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The TARDIS had dulled the lights as Rose traipsed off to bed, leaving the Doctor to his lonely adventures. Everything was far less inviting on his own. Every time he ventured onto another planet without her he found himself talking to air, telling Rose a titbit of information that she would find interesting, only she wasn't there.

After a particularly rough trip through the vortex he opened the doors quizzically. The trip back to Rose's Cardiff should have been easy for the Old Girl. Upon stepping out his apprehension dissipated. There was no mistaking the city, it was Cardiff, maybe a few years out. Maybe he had been hijacked, his ever unreliable ship taking him to a time when he was needed.

He strolled down the busy street, glancing quickly at the passersby. There was nothing unusual about this lot. All human, no alarming screams, and overall nothing out of the ordinary.

The Doctor moved to ask a shopkeeper if anything had been strange about the past few days when a familiar laugh caught his ear. Rose was here. He turned to look for her, watching every blonde head turn and his two hearts falling at once when a less beautiful human looked back at him.

"Doctor?" A woman called from behind him excitedly.

"Rose!" He called, enveloping her in a tight hug. His hands splayed across her back, her hair tickling the tips of his fingers. This was not Rose from his time, her hair was longer, her eyes a little wiser, her voice a bit thicker with emotion.

Rose held him tight, breathing in the scent of him, hints of timber mixing with a tangy smell that could only be attributed to the vortex. She pulled away after a while, "it's really you!"

"Yep," he said with a grin. "Who else would have these ears?"

Rose chuckled, "I'd forgotten how tall you were."

His smile faded with that one word, forgotten. "You aren't travelling with me anymore?"

She attempted to smile but her attempt fell short, "not for a while."

"I suppose telling me what happens will, undoubtedly, be stupid." He forced a chipper look, only Rose noticed that it didn't hold his usual conviction. "So, Rose, care for a cuppa?"

"That sounds lovely, Doctor."

He held out his hand naturally. She was stunned for a moment, having forgotten the ease with which she used to slip her small hand into his. After a moment of hesitation she grasped his hand tight. "I'm on my way home and I need to get back soon but I have enough tea, even for your ridiculously strong tea."

"I like it to have flavour."

"Yeah, it's called tar," Rose interjected.

He feigned hurt but his laughter gave him away and he bumped her lightly as they walked the few hundred meters to Rose's house.

"So where are you at?" Rose asked. "I wouldn't want to give anything away."

"We just got back from meeting your father."

A wave of sadness ghosted over her features as the moment her father died flashed through her mind. She banished the thought only to have the memory of fear she felt that day when she realised the Doctor was had been taken by the monsters. "You sacrificed yourself to save us all."

"Your father did the same," he said softly, squeezing her hand when she flinched.

"I never did ask, were you sure you would come back?"

He turned away, his plan that day had been non-existent. All he knew when he stepped in front of the monster was that his Rose would be safe for a moment. What would become of him was of no concern. "Of course I knew! Wouldn't do something stupid like that if I didn't."

Rose stopped walking, "Doctor. . ."

The tall man stopped and turned to look at her carefully. She looked sad, and slightly angry. He squeezed her hand lightly, encouraging her to continue.

She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to pretend. All she wanted was to give the sad lonely man a shoulder to lean on. "You don't have to. . ." she trailed off, silence falling as Rose cracked a small smile. "Oh don't worry."

He shrugged and continued walking as Rose walked fast to catch up with his long strides.

"It's just up here." She pulled him towards a small house. "I'm home," Rose yelled over the loud noise spilling from the top floor.

A skinny guy rushed down the stairs, picking Rose up in a hug and spinning her enthusiastically before kissing her giggles away. "It worked! Donna was right. Oh, Donna was brilliant!"

"John," Rose placed a hand on his arm as he recognised the visitor. She gestured nervously, "this is the Doctor."

"I've heard a lot about you." He said, putting out his hand. "I'm John, John Tyler."

The Doctor shook it, and if he happened to smile when John winced slightly who would blame him? "So you two are married then?"

"Going on two years, I took her last name. Mine was a bit of a mouthful."

Rose laughed as the tension disappeared from her frame. "Don't you have a meeting to get to?"

The man shrugged, "Torchwood couldn't start without me so I am never late."

"Get going you idiot," she said with a shove and a smirk.

As he grabbed a brown suit jacket from the coat rack he kissed Rose on the cheek. Heading out the door he turned back, winking to Rose before turning to him. "Nice to meet you, Doctor."

"So, tea?" Rose asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah." He followed her into a small kitchen. The jealousy he felt was leaking out in his expression and in his tone, "he seems nice."

Rose turned her back to him and began fussing with the kettle in an attempt to hide her amusement. "He is."

"So Rose Tyler, what do you do once you're done with silly old me?"

After subduing her need to laugh she turned back to face him. "I work a bit, John and I are attempting to remodel."

The Doctor nodded. "Is it a good life?"

A small wail sounded from the next room. Rose beamed at the Doctor's echoed words, "better with three. Do you mind watching the tea? I should go get her."

"No problem." He stood in the kitchen, fidgeting. He never fidgets. Mentally replaying the last few minutes was not helping as a green eyed monster began clawing its way through his mind. Rose was a human, he reminded himself, Rose could never be with him forever. Of course she would find some nice guy to settle down with. Did he have to have such nice hair though?

As the tea steeped he found a tray and wandered into the living room. Placing it on the coffee table he poured her cup at the exact point that she liked it, not too strong and not too weak. Two sugars and a small bit of milk. Over the fireplace was a portrait, Rose and her family. Jackie, John, a young blonde boy, a tiny baby girl, and someone who looked a lot like Pete Tyler.

With a bundle in her arms Rose re-entered the room and took a seat beside him on the sofa. "Sorry, she usually sleeps for a while longer."

"What's her name?" He asked, taking a sip of his tea.

"Sarah," Rose said, lovingly trailing a finger across her daughter's forehead.

The Doctor leant over and looked down at the little girl, "Sarah Tyler, you are going to be one wonderful little girl."

She beamed up at him, her little hands reaching for the button on his jacket. "Would you like to hold her?"

The Doctor took her in his arms, cradling her carefully. "You are a little beauty aren't you?"

She tucked her bare feet up onto the couch, leaning against the arm of the sofa. Rose watched the two of them with adoration. This man was her first Doctor, he would always have a place in her heart as the brilliant man who took her hand and showed her how to run. The man she never imagined she would see again. Confusion began to fill her mind, as she recalled that supposedly he was unable to cross the void again, "how did you get here?"

"I was aiming for 2009. The TARDIS must have been out by a few years." The Doctor wiggling his fingers above Sarah's face as the little girl giggled in amusement. "Strangely rough trip though."

Rose smirked into her mug. It wasn't often that she knew more than the Doctor. "That must have been it."

After talking for a while longer, Rose trying desperately to keep any hints about the future from him, the Doctor announced that he should leave. "Past you is sleeping in the TARDIS and I thought I'd take you for a trip to the ice castles on Arythion."

"I remember that trip. It was brilliant."

With a hug and a few lingering goodbyes the leather jacketed man made his way back onto the streets of Cardiff. Rose watched him walk away, a sadness settling in the pit of her stomach. For the third time she was saying goodbye to the man she loved, knowing that she would never see him again. She had her Doctor now but did nothing to soothe the stinging wound. To say goodbye and feel the distance increasing, to know that he was heading off to adventures that would be more than she could ever imagine. Every time she began to heal he turned back up and the gaping hole reopened. She held her sleeping daughter closer to her chest and closed the door softly. The bandages were already being applied to the gaping wound in her mind.

He should have been happy that Rose was living so well. He should have been able to accept that she was in love with a man, a human man, who could give her the life she was supposed to lead. Never would they have to deal with uneven aging, they would live a human life. Even still his jealously simmered, he loved Rose, but he could never be what she needed. After wandering through Cardiff for a short while he had pulled himself out of the pit of despair.

Things would work out. His beautiful Rose would make a life with someone special and have a daughter. He could never give that to her. He should be happy with the time he has with her.

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Looking in a mirror for the first time after regeneration is always strange. A different face stares back, expressions never look quite the same. In a moment alone he found a mirror, unsure how he would look he stepped towards it hesitantly. The Doctor looked tentatively, a grin filling his face as he recognised the man looking back at him. Everything was going to be fantastic.

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**I first conjured the idea for this as fan art, but alas, my drawing skills are far too inferior to attempt such a picture.**

**If you are wondering why Nine came to be in the other universe: I decided that as Ten Two was working on his own TARDIS he sparked something that drew the TARDIS into his universe. After this Nine goes back into his regular universe, none the wiser.**

**Thank you for reading. **


End file.
